'I Had No Reason to Be Suspicious of Madoff'

12/9/2013 5:36PM

Neil Friedman felt lucky to invest with Madoff and never had a clue he was in with the wrong guy until he learned he'd lost the bulk of his $4 million in savings. Now 79 and widowed, he survives on Social Security and selling notecards, and says the Madoff scandal ruined his enthusiasm for life.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... my name is Neil Friedman ... and seventy nine year Ziyang over the years we had done business with made off he was a client of mine in the same time ... I visited his office mourn Wall Street and I was very confident because ... I know all the people there I could see everything ... so I was rather surprised when we found out that ... there was so much more behind the scenes that I wasn't aware of ... and we do our last term ... both my pension plan in my personal ... assets which include my children so four million dollars ... and ... now I'm basically living on social security in whatever money I can pick up ... doing various things ... my life before ... it ... was one of relaxation when you're traveling ... where we ... had the pleasure of visiting many countries around the world ... the car ... so ... I was married to them what is this November than fifty five years ... she was beautiful she was ... everything a man can dream cream on ... with the losses every day ... Carnegie I'm ... when into invariant their stadium ... depression ... envisioning the lies that she had when she was young which was four ... and um I could do nothing ... to hope for ... and ... be thankful for all we did ... it was just impossible to whom Brinker out of that and the ... then didn't her ... of course dying in a new year to ... two thousand and twelve ... I often had hoped I would have been first but ... Schumer had a hard time there in that so I don't know ... having known me awful so cruelly and professionally ... I have a whole different picture of him ... we were due ... to the pool ... the state of shock ... when you know where we were going we know ... why I think ... we had made the forty thousand dollars in the bank at that time ... and ... the key to stop stalling ... you know I ultimately had to ... put a reverse mortgage on hostages couldn't afford to carry it in ... I'm not able to really find employment ... nobody wants to hire seventy nine year old man ... well I'm selling note cards that feature my photographs ... um and that's the hard road to toe ... um ... the photographs people enjoyed it nobody really stopped its bond and ... love flowers flower is ... the master gardener and my wife ... and ... loving flowers ... they gave me the incentive to take pictures of what ... is a little part time job ... and working equally useful ... to do some input on their computers ... or emailing is ... not really ... these include the course ... over the thirty years ... I am after all you know ... a lot of money I thought ... which ... we never really we get to know more than five percent of what we are ... and we averaged about ten percent ... you know it it was a reasonable return our money if you compared with mutual funds and such ... so I had no reason to be suspicious ... I was not able to draw down any money I was being The and that winner net winners were excluded by their ... chain of The Wall ... which of course is another problem because they never had the party can do it ... nobody ... has taken to task for ... so that ... guarantee that ... if you add up to a half a million dollars ... that would of been watching with and I know that a firm said ... go ahead to a house that so that ... my penchant for my personal so I will recover million dollars which would not of course Congress or the taxpayers and ... Neil close to some new suicide ... he's been punished in different ways ... that is likely to be ... I honestly would of liked and not to be in prison but the forced to live the life that we can force them ... we would've done more traveling we would've enjoyed life we would have ... not moved to mean more were happy here we have nice friends ... I don't think that future plans of where I was going to go online ... farmers have long wait ... to hold onto ... you know to work ... we work together to narrow the year she was in the office she didn't work for me to work with ... and lunch ... and dinner were always together ... I never win any clues as to what we can go together ... to the best in the bathroom ... make audience will flower ... Harper has ... said it lost all enthusiasm about everything I was enthusiastic about ... and so on ... I wrote a book ... you know when I was in mourning ... about all the things you had to learn that it took for granted ... over the years ... and then try to publish it may be sold fifteen copies ... and ... that is very little enjoyment I've been ...